right? >> well, they want to stop a lot of things. they also want to keep very important things going in a way that runs against their core message. what i mean by that, norah, i think an essential part of this platform is they want to continue very costly tax cuts across the board that are going to continue to drive up big deficits in this country, but the rhetoric in this platform says what they are about is budget balances and deficit busting. so there is that sort of core contradiction but, on the other hand, they want to stop and overturn loost a lot of the obama agenda, most or all of the obama agenda we have seen so far so that part is definitely true. >> what it like on specifics? i'm referring to paul krugman's piece today, that in order to balance the budget by 2020 and if you keep all of the bush tax

cuts and republican all of the republican ideas that they want to, in this pledge, you would essentially have to get rid of national parks, no more small business administration loans, no more export subsidies and no no to everything. you have to get rid of everything else. aren't the tea party activists who are behind the current movement in the republican party, aren't they say no more to this stuff? >> well, right. this is what is so important politically right now is that the tea partiers and now the house republicans are saying we have to cut spending across the board. but then they do put big area of spending off limit. don't touch spending for seniors or the troops or veterans at this point, which leaves you with a much smaller universe of spending you can cut and makes it hard to make a significant dent in the budget deficit but they don't take the next step to go through the different line items and say we think that national park staff needs to go down and the national parks need to close or school lunch programs need to be scaled back

because those are unpopular positions. what they have done is cherry-pick the popular side without going through and pinpointing the specific unpopular positions that it will require to take to get there. they are sort of having their cake and eating it, too, which is necessarily inconvenient but not necessarily honest. >> i had a heated discussion yesterday with congressman mack thornberry who was there with the republicans laying out the pledge. >> i did. >> i asked him they want to repeal and replace obama care. so i wanted to know specifically all of the consumer protections that went into effect yesterday, like you can't deny children with preexisting conditions coverage, that you can't pay a copay or a deductible when you get mammograms or colonoscopies or some immunizations. here is what he said. listen. >> this document wants to repeal

the whole health care bill. now this congress. it is not a party blueprint for everything that we would do, if given the opportunity in another congress. >> do they need to be more specific, michael some. >> well, the problem, norah, again, is similar to this problem with spending that we just discussed. in a kind of a broad way, there is and appeal to saying we want to repeal, quote/unquote, obama care, but when you start talking about the particular measures that are going to be removed, a lot of people will say, wait a second. maybe i didn't like the exact version that obama and the congress passed but can you keep this part and that part and that other part and why the republicans are using a slogan repel and replace. they are saying we will seep kooep some of the things but haven't figured out what parts they will keep and the trick it's not easy to have the popular provisions without some of the unpopular provisions. for instance you prohibit bans on coverage for people with preexisting conditions. you have to have an individual

mandate to make sure that the costs don't blow up and get out of control and they haven't done, i think, yet the hard work of saying how are we going to do this? how are we going to keep parts of the people and get rid of the parts that people don't like? that is the hard work of governing and their document is not really being honest about that right now. >> good to see you, michael. >> great to see you. thank you. democrats have countered this house republican pledge to america with their own promise. refusing to release their own agenda. vowing, instead, to run on their legislative record. democrats, though, are calling the republicans commitment to, quote, a pledged to special interest and they call it a plague on america. florida's democratic congressman debbie wassermann-shultz joins us live. good to see you. >> you, too. >> they are putting a pledge to america? it may have lacked some specifics. why can't the democrats put forward their pledge or what they are going to do if they were reelected to a new congress? >> well, because we are in the midst of doing it and,

unfortunately, without the cooperation of the republicans, but we have a solid record to run on and we are going to continue to press forward if we are fortunate enough to return to the majority, that we will continue to push to move the country in a new direction, focus on the job creation and expanding the -- the tax cutting policy to assist the middle class and working families and small businesses. we will continue to implement the health care reform law and make sure we can continue to keep patience, put patience in the driver's seat as opposed to insurance companies. a stark contrast laid out in the pledge to special interests that the republican rolled out yesterday versus the protection for consumers and standing up for the middle class that we have been progressing on. >> i hear you're saying there is a stark contrast but perhaps voters don't see that stark contrast. i think you would acknowledge that. bill clinton yesterday said that the democrats need to be more vigorous was the word that he

used about presenting. just listen to what he said. >> i think that the democrats ought to put on one card no more than five and no fewer than three things that will be their priorities. we still got a chance here. i know how easy it is to lose control of the debate. it happened to me in '93 and '94. so i think that the president and the democrats, even at this late date, should do this as an opportunity and an obligation to say, all right, they have organized their national plan. here is what ours is. >> here is what ours is. you heard the president right there. if you've got your little card, then, congresswoman, what are the three to five things? real quick. tick them off. >> focusing on providing tax cuts to small businesses, the middle class and working families. making sure that we can balance helping businesses to thrive. we are focusing on deficit reduction and not having our tax

policy explode the deficit which is the difference between the republicans and the democrats' policy. focusing on trying to compliment the health care reform legislation so that we can continue to close the doughnut hole. implement the protections that kicked in yesterday and take insurance companies out of the driver's seat and put patients back in control of their own health care and shift the health care system from a sick care system to one that focuses on wellness and prevention. that is to name a few on top of what we have already accomplished which is the most consistent legislative record in history by most people's accounts. wall street he reform, health care reform, turning the economy around, which was bleeding 750,000 plus jobs a month, to now adding a hundred thousand private sector jobs. we've made a lot of progress but we have a long way to go and we want to make sure we can push forward for that change. >> i don't have to tell you the polls out there that suggest there is still a majority of americans who don't like obama care but there was actually an associated press poll yesterday

that showed, in part, because there is still a lot of misconceptions about the health care reform. you know, 52% think that they are going to pay more in taxes. only 38% say no change in taxes paid. actually, a lot of people also thought that it would be a budget buster when, in fact, the nonpartisan cbo has said that actually health care reform would save over a hundred billion dollars. so why have the democrats failed in communicating obama care, health care reform? >> well, first of all, you're helping the republicans by playing into their hands and calling it obama care in the first place. it's health care reform. let's make sure we call it what it is. >> i understand that, but is it the president's health care reform. >> our signature proposal is one that just, yesterday, kicked in the patients bill of rights. for example, it makes sure that we no longer allow insurance companies to drop you if you're

sick. it makes sure that children are not going to be denied coverage based on a preexisting condition. that young adults, this kicked in yesterday, young adults can stay on their parents insurance policy until they are 26. we do need to spend more time educating americans about what the reforms do and how they benefit them. but particularly in terms of the -- it's the most significance deficit reduction that we have ever passed out of the congress. over 20 years, 1.3 trillion in deficit reduction and in addition to that, significant tax cuts for small businesses on their health insurance premiums that they pay for their employees. >> congressman -- >> we have to make sure we get the word out to people. you're absolutely right. >> congresswoman debbie wassermann-shultz, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. we got new information here. moments ago, actually at a press conference in new york, iran's president mahmoud ahmadinejad says he would have, quote, no problem meeting with the freed american hiker sarah shourd.

remember, she was released from prison in iran earlier this month. she said she wants a face-to-face meeting with ahmadinejad while he's in new york for the u.n. general assembly. she wants to lobby him but time could be running out. ahmadinejad is scheduled to leave new york. we will see if that face-to-face meeting takes place. remember, that she is still for example begging for the release of her fiance who is still in jail and her friend and why she is requesting this fm face-to-face meeting. coming up, first lady michelle obama prepares to hit the campaign trail. how will it help democrats heading into the november elections? what happens when stephen colbert shows up on capitol hill? oh, my! you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. boss: our breakout session is gonna be great.

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service men and women are resilient so you're not going to hear them complain enthey are proud, so they are not going to show it. but it's hard to spend years of serving your country only to find that the value of that service isn't fully understood. i mean, it's hard to give so much for so long for a cause greater than yourself only to come home and find that there is nowhere you quite fit in. >> that's first lady michelle obama's key note message at the clinton global initiative. the push for veterans hiring just the latest effort in the first lady's campaign on behalf of military families. joining me now is lynn sweet, columnist and washington bureau chief for the chicago sun times and a contributor for politics daily. lynn, good to see you. we will talk about the first lady and why she focused on veterans and military families in this speech. but, first, she is about to

weigh in on the elections in six different states. what is strategy behind her moves? >> two big points. one, money, money, money. each event is a fund-raiser. this is pay to play. you got to pay to see her because right now it may change. there is no mass events planned. number two, from her perspective, stay out of trouble. do not expect her to give the highly partisan speeches that president obama does. i don't each think she would go as far as saying the car is stuck in drive and reverse. i think that might each be too much. those are the two big points. >> that's really interesting. so all of the events, too, are paid fund-raisers so if you're an average joe or jane you're not going to get in unless you can support the big bucks? >> these are fund-raisers -- she will earn millions for democratic candidates and committees on this. that is very, very important. i happen to think -- seen her for years now speak. she a very effective stump

speaker. president obama has some get out the vote rallies. one in madison is coming up where he will get tens of thousands of people to crank it up for the fall. for the moment as far as they have publicly said that is not there. every day nor is sle not out in the event or money left on the democratic table. >> did we know that the first lady agree to all of the campaign events she was asked to do or did she say, no, i don't want to do that often, just a few events i'll do? >> yeah. because right now -- you said six states. i think there are seven events. maybe she has on the books right now nine plus, maybe a dozen fund-raisers. she picked her spots. everybody in the country wants her to help them. who wouldn't? she is more popular than the president kicking off her fund-raising drive, back home in chicago. >> of course, everybody knows the first lady has been tackling obesity in america. she has a let's move campaign. she has been talking about that a lot and has the garden at the white house.

yesterday, before the u.n. and more international audience, she talked about our veterans and our military families. it's definitely one of her significant issues and interestingly, just to short of show the problem facing our veterans, 1.03 million veterans are without jobs and that has pushed the jobless rate to veterans 8.7% up from 8.4%. and she really delivered a message to people about high our veterans. >> but it's even more nuance than this. frankly, if i hadn't been to an event with jobless vets a few weeks ago in chicago, here is what she said she swelve, that it's not just hire any jobless vet. you have to be sensitive to giving credit for military jobs that don't necessarily right now translate to civil i don't know. if you have been managing something in progressively more military responsibility is it that important that have you a college degree? probably not. her job now and one of the things i'm going to watch to see what she is doing to execute

this, is to get employers to learn more how the military works so that when you see a sergeant work ten years managing food service, that maybe not having some sort certification is something you can overlook and give him a job. >> there you go. lynn sweet, nice to see you. >> thank you. >> coming up, inside the staff shakeups at the white house. could too much change be too much to handle for team obama? and comedian colbert brings his version of truth. there was one lawmaker who didn't want to hear it. >> i'm not asking you not to talk. i'm asking you to leave the committee room completely and submit your statement instead. >> after convincing the house committee to let him stay, the late night comic testified in character offering what was really some unforgettable human.

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daveid will move. a resolving door for some of its top advisers and rumors more staff shake-ups in the mix. john harris is joining us now. john, good to see you. david axelrod, i think that was largely respected he would return to chicago to begin the president's re-election

campaign, but if he leaves, this will also set off another chain of events p.m. there is talk, too, robert gibbs, the press secretary could moo move up to an adviser role and a new face in terms of the daily press spokesman? >> that's right. i think some expectation that maybe gibbs' deputy bill burton would be ready for that job and move up. that is a natural move for robert gibbs, of course, because he has already played that role as kind of senior adviser and part of the inner circle. he is busy holed up in skull sessions with obama. >> it's not just axle rod. we have been talking about rahm emanuel expected to make a decision in the next couple of weeks whether he will run for mayor of chicago. it seems like he is putting all of the pieces in place. >> clearly going to do that, yes. >> i guess the conventional wisdom is that he would be

replaced by pete rouse already in the white house in a caretaker role. who do you think is up for the top job now? could daschle return as chief of staff? what are the top names at this point? >> we certainly hear that name, although tom daschle would have made more sense at the beginning of the administration when health care was such a big issue. we hear a lot about tom domlin moving up. there is almost an endless sort of game we could play. to me, there is a big question, does president obama believe that there is something fundamentally in need of correction in terms of how he has run his staff to date? in which case, maybe he is really looking for an outsider not part of somebody who is part of the inner circle and maybe has a representation of his or her own but think this has fundamentally worked and

naturally people are moving on but i like this being a white house of insiders so he will pull somebody like pete rouse or others who he is really familiar with. >> john, answer that question. do you get the sense that these staff changes are going to be part of what is the natural cycle, that and out of a white house, which is a tough place to work, very long hours, or do you get the sense that the president is about to make some serious changes after the november elections when democrats are expected to take a shellacking because he wants to change things? >> i think some of this will be decided after the midterms when we find out the answer, is it a shellacking, if so, how bad a shellacking and what is the new balance in town for republicans to take over one house or the congress you will be looking for somebody in the chief staff role who can deal with them. whereas, if democrats hang on, you want somebody who can deal

productively with speaker pelosi still in the job. i do know this. that there are a lot of democrats in washington and around the country who feel that what is needed in the west wing is more dramatic change, that the close, inner circle model has not served obama well. and that he needs somebody with real stature to come in who have opened the windows and sort of fundamentally restructure how the west wing works. >> john harris, editor in chief of politico, we will be watching. good to see you. >> good to see you. are charter schools the future of american education? the head of one high performing school that's being used as an example for everybody else. oprah loves this school. plus, are republicans playing it too safe with their pledge to their conservative base? and send me your thoughts. you can find me on twitter at norah o'donnell. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. [ male ] marie callender's invites you back to lunch,

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i'm. i'm norah o'donnell. three suspected bank robbers on the run in south florida right now. police say the men kidnapped a bank teller and strapped a bomb to his chest and used him to steal money from the bank. the teller was brought out of the bank unharmed rur. a colorado man charged of arsson starting a wildfire there earlier this month. authorities believe that joel letterman started the fire while burning brush on his property. if convicted he could face up to six years in jail. record flooding has forced a state of emergency in parts of minnesota and wisconsin. evacuations are under way and more rain is predicted for tomorrow. a federal judge in san francisco could issue an injunction today banning the military from discharging gay service members. the move follows a ruling by the same judge earlier this month that don't ask, don't tell, is unconstitutional. the obama administration objectses to the injunction saying it could harm military

readiness during a time of war. a new global report on obesity shows 33 out of the world's richest countries, americans are at the top. two-thirds of americans are overweight or obese, putting them at higher risk of heart disease and diabetes and several types of cancer. another fight over textbooks in texas. state board of education in texas is planning a vote today on a resolution warning publisherses prevent ago pro islamic anti-crisp viewpoint in history books. critics say it intolerant. promoters say it promotes religious equality. if you're handing over a check worth a hundred million dollars and want a bit of fan fare, no plaets better place than oprah. >> i have committed to starting the start-up education foundation whose first project will be a hundred million dollar challenge grant. >> $100 million? >> yes. >> that is facebook's

multibillionaire founder mark zuckerberg. he is just 26. giving newark's new jersey public school system a hundred million dollars. everybody has big smiles on their face. the donation starts at education foundation for school reform and will put the newark schools back under the mayor's control for the first time in 15 years. mary booker is hoping for matching donations. oprah's angel network awarded 1 million dollars to learn charter network. great to see you. thanks for joining us. you must be thrilled with oprah's million dollar donation. >> absolutely, norah. completely. >> what will you use that money for? >> one, to allow us to open a fifth school so we are excited to serve more kids. two, it also allow us to attract and retain how quality teachers.

>> craig, i want to give everybody a little bit of information about the learn charter schools network. you have four schools on chicago's south and west sides. you offer preschool to eighth grade and your goal is to have 16 high performing elementary schools by tint between the more than 80% of them meet or exceed state standards and a lot of them are on their way to college and they graduate. how do you do it some. >> a couple of things. one, we do not believe low income means low performance. we believe the opposite. we believe an excessive college education. four pieces of formula. one, longer school days, we have more school days, we start august 2nd. we have fewer kids in the classroom only 25 kids and two full-time instructors and, finally, we attract he very best teachers in the country.

>> how do private donations like this help? and let me ask you, because in the case, you have a charter school. in the case, for instance of newark, the students in newark, which are in public schools, they are already getting about $20,000 a year per student, and now mark zuckerberg, one of the cofounders of facebook, is giving a hundred million dollars. the mayor, corey booker, is going to have more control over that. how do you then reform a public school system? >>. >> i think newark is fortunate. in chicago we receive about $7,000 per kid so we rely heavily on philanthropy. i think the way we help reform the overall system we show examples of success that in fact, we can in fact, have schools in low income communities, yet produce strong academic outcomes and having outstanding teachers and fewer

kids in the classroom and longer days and more days is what works. >> you focus, too, on the relationship with the teacher and the student. you believe that is sort of one of the hallmarks of learning, right? >> absolutely. safe and nurturing environment is the key to having great academic outcome. we need to meet the needs of the student and the emotional and social and psychological needs of our students because whether that occurs, then a child is ready to learn. >> then, greg, again, i mentioned your success but i just want to point out once again that 99% of your alumni graduate from a high school and 83% go on to a four-year college or university. that is absolutely fantastic. when do you think you can expand? i know you've got four schools and you want 16. when do you expect to do that by? >> thanks to the generosity of oprah's angel network, we will open our fifth school next year so grow from 1,400 students to probably 2000 and open another

11 schools over the next decade is our plans. it takes about $2 million per school to open. oprah gave us money to launch our fifth school and with the help of generous contributors, we expect to, over the next decade, serve up to 8,000 more kids. >> greg, congratulations on that. i'm thrilled for you and thrilled for these students who have the opportunity to learn at your schools. thanks so much. >> thank you, norah. that much anticipated documentary waiting for superman is hitting select theaters tonight. this film is great. its take a hard look at the public's school system and especially at charters. andrea mitchell has a preview of what this movie is all about. >> the first student selected. 20. >> oh, my god! >> a lottery. the prize? a chance for a good education. for these kids, it's all a matter of luck. >> a child that doesn't finish high school will earn less and

be eight times more likely to go to prison. >> i want to go to school. >> for these kids, their only chance at getting into a great school depends on whether their number is picked in the lottery. >> in the new film waiting for superman, documentary filmmaker david says education reform shouldn't be left to chance. >> there is all kinds of lotteries, what parents you're born with and what district you're born in and what teacher you have. this is crazy. when there is a great school in the neighborhood there shouldn't be a lottery to get in. every kid should get a great education and we need to get a lot better. >> he and others who raised awareness with al gore's "an inconvenient truth" are trying to do the same for education. the challenge is dauntsing. a quarter of our students do not graduate from high school. two-thirds of eighth graders do not read at grade level and then there is this. >> among 30 developed countries we rank 25th in math and 21st in science and almost every category we have fallen behind, except one. kids from the usa rank number

one in confidence. ♪ >> reporter: when it comes to public education, americans have very little to be confident about. waiting for superman brings it home. following five families in search of a better opportunity for their kids. >> i want to be a nurse. i want to be a doctor. >> how come? >> because i would like to help somebody in need. >> reporter: the film's focus is on charter schools as the solution has been a point of contention among critics. >> we have great public schools across the country. not one public school was pictured in this film. >> reporter: in fact, the results from charter schools are mixed. nationwide, only 17% produced results that were significantly better than traditional public schools. 37% performed worse. so who will come to the rescue? who will be superman for these children? >> i think in many ways they are waiting for all of us. i think they are waiting for the american public to realize the

incredible challenges that they face every day in trying to do something basic when which is attain a great education, a great public school education. >> i think they are waiting for great teachers and waiting for great leaders and waiting for people that can help show them the way out of the tough situation that they grew up in and we have to provide more of those leaders for them. >> i know who superman is but the titles is there for you to go see the film and find out and use your imagination. >> the hope, that the film will galvanize the public into action. >> this sunday, joe scarborough and mika brzezinski will host a ground hall on the documentary part of our special series education nation as the networks of nbc universal put focus on raising the grade in america's classroom and on monday a nbc news exclusive. president obama will sit down with matt lauer for a live one-on-one interview that will air uninterrupted for an entire half hour starting on msnbc and on msnbc nbc and join andrea at

1:00 live from the plaza and she will talk with arne duncan and the following. plus two journalists that were featured in the movie ewsweek's" jonathan alter and the "the washington post" jay matthews. that is monday on msnbc. coming up, where can bill clinton help democrats and president obama on the comeback trail some we will ask the strategist to weigh in. first, the current president gushes to the former president about a little first lady love. >> bill clinton understands where i'm coming from here. he knows what it's like to be married to somebody who is smarter, somebody who is better looking, somebody that is just all-around a little more impressive than you are! before rogaine, my solution to the problem was to go ahead

and wear hats. i was always the hat guy. i can't even tell you how much it's changed my life. [ male announcer ] only rogaine is proven to regrow hair in 85% of guys. no more hats. [ male announcer ] stop losing. start gaining. - that's right, cso we've got a list no more hats. of things you can do to get active. - like jumping jacks. - or how 'bout push-ups? - sit-ups? - uh, maybe jumping rope? - yeah. or jogging. - uh, how about like a wheelbarrow race? - oh, yeah, that's a great idea. - but imagine actually trying to use him as a wheelbarrow, like stacking bricks on him and doing, like, doo-doo-doo. you know what i mean? - or yoga. - which is actually peaceful and quiet and not a lot of talking, so... - exactly. is he still looking at me?

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16 years ago former preed president bill clinton watched his party suffer historic losses in the 1994 mid terms and now he is offering president obama some advice on how to avoid the same fate. listen. >> which idea is most likely to work. i think that ought to be the debate. what are we going to do? who is more likely to do it? and i think -- i believe they should say give us two more years to do this. if it doesn't work, can you throw us all out. >> with me now is martin frost and phil muster. welcome to both of you. >> thank you. >> congressman, you were formerly the chairman of the d triple c in charge of house races in this country. bill clinton said democrats have to be more vigorous and there should be a note card three to five things and talk about it and run on it and he thinks that democrats aren't doing a good job.

>> he think they need to be more vigorous and he said they need to acknowledge not everything has been perfect. that not everything has worked exactly the way they thought it would but what he is suggesting is we have done everything we could, give us two more years, then if you want to be mad at us, that's fine. >> i mean, with all due respect to the former president, is that really an argument to take to the voters? give us another two years to get it right? >> it's more than that, though. what he is saying is here is what we have actually done and here is what we would do during the next two years. i think the argument is a good one and when democrats need to be vigorous, he probably understands politics better than anyone else on the democratic side in this country. >> i think he is saying if you get your hand swatted by the voter. the stimulus and t.a.r.p. spending is grossly unpopular so if you follow that playbook and say give me two normore years the answer is a bye. >> i don't think that is what he

is saying. he is saying the country was in a ditch when obama took over and obama did a lot of things and democrats in congress did a lot of things that got us out of the ditch and we will build on those the next two years. everything hasn't been perfect. as far as the health care plan is contender concerned, i agree with that. i think we ought to be talking about that. i think ultimately it will be popular and things are just starting to be phased in. i had children out of college who didn't have insurance. i would love to have been able to carry my daughter on my health insurance policy until she was 26. >> today in the headlines you're seeing major providers opting out of offering basic insurance services. blue cross/blue shield in minnesota pulled two offerings that they don't believe it's in their business interest to do it under their new health care plan. i think republicans are confident in making the case obama care generally is an

anti-growth, anti -- is a policy that is fundamentally flawed for the future of our country. that is the debate that is going to play out. >> if they are comfortable in competition other people will come into that market and people -- if blue cross doesn't want to offer policies in a certain state, other insurers will. >> one of the things we have found in our poll is that the american people are fed up. they are fed up with washington and fed up with the democrats controlling congress and with the republicans. and one of the things we also found is they are also angry about is the bush policies. people still don't like the bush policies. the republicans yesterday in the house lay out what they call their pledge for america. they say it's what they are going to do new and change when they take control and, yet, it's more of the same which is to continue the bush tax cuts even for the wealthiest americans. how is that a new agenda? >> there's a variety of new things in there. measures for better transparency and accountability in the congress. there is a basic recognition i think republicans will say raising taxes on anyone at the

time the situation we're in from an economic standpoint is unwise and anti-growth. it's got a proposal to bring us back to 2008 levels in spending and cap them. those are ideas that have been bottom up ideas that have come back from the voice of america and those are ideas that frankly the american people are -- >> except george w. bush when he went to the american people and proposed those tax cuts even for the wealthiest americans there was a surplus brought by clinton. now we have a massive deficit and continuing the bush tax cuts for the healthiest americans would lead to a 700 billion dollar deficit and paul krug sman a liberal columnist in new york city today said if you took the republicans plan which is including all of the bush tax cuts and protect all of the programs that republicans want, you would essentially have to cut everything else in the federal government. no more parks, no more small business administration, no more loan exports subsidies and no more medicaid, no more child, health or child nutrition

programs. isn't it totally unsustainable to continue the tax cuts for wealthiest americans? let me ask bill to answer that! >> i would be happy to answer, too. >> i think the question is do you want to grow your way out of this problem or do you want to have see the economy dribble along the next year? ultimately what republicans are suggesting is a pro growth pro private sector opportunity to paper over a lot of the deficit issues that are to be lay to blame at the feet of the bush administration and this congress. i don't think we have an argument about that. to move this country forward we have to grow our way out of this and look the way clinton did it after the midterms in 1994. they put the growth into deficit reduction as opposed to more government spending. to get deficit reduction under control we have to have our economy grow. taxing our job providers is the wrong way to go. >> the republican math is as phony as a 3 dollar bill. look what they do. they say, okay, we are going to continue do.

okay, we're going to $700 worth of tax cuts. and we're going to cut $100 million a year from spending. they don't do anything to help the deficit by doing that. >> warren buffett says to get rid of the tax cuts for the wealthiest americans. i guess that's easy for him to say. >> not so easy for the guy making $300,000 a year. and this sunday we should mention on "meet the press" there is an exclusive 2010 decision debate. congressman chris van hollen and chris pence will offer two sides of the debate. and what political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? that's up next. last year. (oof). i had a bum knee that needed surgery. but it got complicated, because i had an old injury. so i wanted a doctor who had done this before. and unitedhealthcare's database helped me find a surgeon. you know you can't have great legs,

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which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? chris cillizza is managing editor of post politics.com and

author of "the fix." scott brown, the man who made history back in january, norah, winning ted kennedy's old senate seat in the special election going to pennsylvania later today for pat toomey. toomey is running for senate seat of arlen specter. toomey is probably three or four ticks more conservative than scott brown, but scott brown is a big draw for republican audiences. he goes around, he raises money. but he's always beginning to keep his eye back in massachusetts. that's not exactly a republican stronghold. he's up in 2012 for re-election. >> that's right. pat toomey up seven points. chris cillizza, always good to see you. thanks so much. >> good to see you. take care. >> that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." join andrea live monday. look at that live picture. tamron hall is here with a look at what's ahead in the next

hour. >> hey, norah, a big show coming up. we have the latest from south florida where an eight-hour standoff with police at a bank has ended with some big questions for the eler. and lindsay lohan's day in court ended with the hollywood starlet being led away in handcuffs. lindsay locked up. what happens next? plus, the government still owns 17% of citigroup, but dozens of the company's top executives we just learned got multi-million dollar pay raises. we'll talk with msnbc's dylan ratigan about this developing story. as we all know, geico han saving people money on rv, camper and trailer insurance... ...as well as motorcycle insurance... gecko: oh...sorry, technical difficulties. boss: uh...what about this? gecko: what's this one do? gecko: um...maybe that one. ♪ dance music boss: ok, let's keep rolling. we're on motorcycle insurance. vo: take fifteen minutes to see how much you can save

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i'm tamron hall. right now on msnbc, a robbery, a kidnapping, a bomb and more questions than answers. the investigation into an eight-hour standoff with police near miami is far from over. and back to jail. lindsay lohan led away in handcuffs after a failed drug

test. >> i've got to ask, why isn't the government doing anything? maybe this ad jobs bill would help. i don't know, like most members of congress, i haven't read it. >> truth ton the hill. comedian stephen colbert testifies before congress as his alter ego. he certainly brought a few laughs, but did he help the migrant worker cause. michael smerconish will join me in the debate about this. and developing now, 25 top executives from one of the nation's biggest banks which got billions in government bailout money is getting multi-million dollar bonuses. we'll see what dylan ratigan has to say about it. now developing new details on the dramatic early bank robbery near miami, florida. the fbi says robbers kidnapped a bank teller from his home, strapped what was believe be a bomb to his chest, and used him to steal bank out of the bank of amica branch in the city. >> once